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On the day Major League Baseball announced it will donate $500,000 to benefit victims of Hurricane Ike, commissioner Bud Selig and MLB took out a full-page ad in the Chronicle in response to criticism over the moving of two recent Astros games to Milwaukee’s Miller Park.

The Astros lost both games to the Chicago Cubs, who had been set to visit Minute Maid Park, and were no-hit by Carlos Zambrano last Sunday night.

The players, manager Cecil Cooper and some officials in the Houston area have faulted Selig over the move, saying it was unfair to a team in the race for the National League wild card.

“I recognized the advantage the Cubs would have in playing in such close proximity to Chicago, and had there been a better option, I would have taken it,” Selig wrote in the ad on page C16 of the Sports section.

“All of us involved in the decision regret the frustration the Astros and their fans felt about playing two games in Milwaukee.”

Selig said roofed ballparks in Minneapolis, Phoenix and St. Petersburg, Fla., were not available.

“We did not think it was fair to play games on the West Coast” with the Astros heading to Miami to face the Marlins, the commissioner said.

Selig wrote that he has heard the complaints of Astros fans.

“While it is insignificant in comparison to the havoc that was taking place in southeast Texas, the storm also created a scheduling difficulty for Major League Baseball. ... As commissioner, my job is to balance many competing needs, while also finishing the season on time,” Selig wrote.

Astros first baseman Lance Berkman said he still thinks other options were available but that the gesture was appreciated.

“I know that he feels like there were no other options. I’m not sure that was necessarily the case in a strict sense,” Berkman said. “We could have opted to not play any of the games and play a doubleheader at the end of the season if we needed to. That probably would have sorted out any playoff implications. That’s certainly a nice gesture on his part to maybe make amends.”

Berkman added that despite the circumstances, the Astros are to blame for their own shortcomings.

“You can only use that as an excuse for so long why we are where we are,” Berkman said. “We went up there, and there’s 90 feet between the bases up there at Miller Park) just like there was at home. There was a hostile crowd, but we won three games from the Cubs at Wrigley, so it’s no excuse.”